


Seeing Double

by WordsInTimeAndSpace



Category: Doctor Who, Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Christmas, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-10
Updated: 2016-12-10
Packaged: 2018-09-07 17:06:34
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,274
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8808907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WordsInTimeAndSpace/pseuds/WordsInTimeAndSpace
Summary: Bored by the domestics of celebrating Christmas at Jackie’s, the Doctor tinkers with some unknown alien technology and suddenly finds a second Doctor standing in front of him. But while he anticipates disaster, the duplicate Doctor might finally be his chance to move his relationship with Rose forward.





	

**Author's Note:**

> This is a Secret Santa gift for thegirlwithsilvereyes on tumblr. :) Happy Christmas everyone!

The Doctor let out a sigh as he plumped down onto the couch in the Tyler’s living room and propped his feet up the coffee table. With a pout, he looked back to the kitchen, hoping that Rose would take pity on him, but the door remained firmly closed. He sucked a finger into his mouth and swirled his tongue around the tip, enjoying the last bits of biscuit dough he had been able to scoop out of the bowl when he thought Rose wasn’t looking, right before she’d thrown him out of the kitchen for eating half of the dough when it was still raw.

Leaning back, the Doctor stared at the ceiling, silently cursing himself. All he had wanted in the first place was a bit of company. It had been a week since they left Mickey behind in the parallel world, and Rose had been distant ever since. He missed her, and the terror that she might leave him was slowly becoming overwhelming. He had already been too close to lose her in the other universe. And now they were celebrating Christmas at Jackie’s, the domestics of it slowly driving him mad, and Rose was still putting distance between them. Although he knew that he couldn’t blame her, not after he’d been doing the exact same thing for weeks, he craved her company more than ever.

A Christmas without any kind of alien invasions and without Rose at his side was terribly boring, the Doctor had to learn now. He was in desperate need of something to do. Jackie might not forgive him if he fiddled with the telly again.

Rummaging through his pockets, the Doctor’s fingers closed around a small, round device. His face lit up as he pulled it out, put on his glasses and inspected the alien machine. He had picked it up from his workshop a while ago to tinker with it and forgotten about it until now. Whatever it was that the device was supposed to do, it was currently broken - and with that, it was the perfect entertainment for him until Rose was done baking. Maybe he could convince her to get some chips afterwards.

With his tongue pressed to the back of his teeth, the Doctor gently removed the cover of the device, giving him a view of a mess of wires and computer chips underneath. He pulled out his sonic screwdriver and started to work with an excited grin on his lips.

After a while, he had fixed some broken wires, found and recharged a small battery, realized with astonishment how much processing power the computer chips actually had, and had identified one part of the device as some kind of scanner - but he still had no clue what the machine was actually doing. Lost in thought, he startled when Rose suddenly spoke behind him.

“What’re you doing?” she asked and he jumped in surprise. The screwdriver slipped off the part he was currently sonicing and hit a panel he hadn’t been able to identify so far. In response, the device let out a short, loud beep.

Amazed, the Doctor looked down at it to see lights flaring up. The device hummed quietly as the lights flickered in a slow rhythm, but every last bit of the Doctor’s excitement turned into dread as he felt a tingle at the edge of his mind. Oh, this was not good. He let out a shuddering breath as he raised his mental defences, but a second later he realized that the device was not actually invading his mind, but just… scanning. Not looking for anything in particular, but assessing every last bit of information it could reach.

Before the Doctor could contemplate what was happening, a bright light emerged from the machine, quick as lightning. Rose let out a shriek behind him and the Doctor squeezed his eyes shut. When he opened them again, he could only stare at what was suddenly in front of him. The device slipped out of his hands and landed on the coffee table with a loud thud.

On the other side of the table stood the Doctor. Or someone - something? - that looked like him, staring at him with an astonished expression that he was sure was the exact mirror of his own.

“What have you done?” Rose cried behind him, rushing around the couch at his side.

The Doctor opened his mouth to answer, but closed it again. His mind whirling, he desperately tried to find the answer to that question. His counterpart stared back at him, mouth hanging open, raking a hand through his hair with a motion he recognized as his own, and something clicked.

“Ahh,” the Doctor said, his frown turning slowly into an excited beam. “You’re a class alpha artificial consciousness with an interface personalized by optic and telepathic scans, aren’t you?”

The other Doctor blinked once before clearing his throat and nodding. “Err, yes. Class alpha three to be precise. Running a simulation with a continuous learning algorithm to optimize the performance.”

“Oh, your audio-visual representation is already on point. Astonishing.”

“Doctor,” Rose interrupted, a slice of panic in her voice. “Stop babbling like that and tell me what’s going on. Did you just… I don’t know, clone yourself?”

He looked at Rose who was watching his duplicate, one eyebrow raised, her expression somewhere between shock and fascination. She let her eyes wander up and down his body, clad in the same tight clothes that he was wearing, the suit jacket missing and the shirt rolled up to his elbows. Even the glasses were there, perched on his nose.

“No, of course not,” he scoffed, trying to fight the trace of irrational jealousy that simmered inside him when Rose’s gaze lingered on the other Doctor’s exposed forearms. He was usually the only one to get that look from her. “Cloning is nothing that can be done in a few seconds. And even then, the new organism only has the same genetic material, but it still needs to grow like any other living creature.”

“Then who are you?” Rose asked, addressing his duplicate in confusion.

The second Doctor rubbed his neck, frowning. “Well, I am like him,” he said. “That’s the whole point.”

“But you’re not,” the Doctor said in irritation. “You only look like me.”

“But he talks like you,” Rose protested. “And acts like you.”

“Yes, but he’s just a projection. A brilliant one, mind you, but he isn’t alive. It’s just a computer, an artificial intelligence, trying to copy who I am. The machine did a scan of my mind and it’s now simulating myself.”

Rose tilted her head, still not convinced.

“He doesn’t look like a projection,” she said after a moment. “I mean, he’s not see-through or anything. He looks like I can touch him.”

“Of course you can!” the duplicate Doctor said, giving Rose a bright grin. He took a quick step forward to her and held out his hand, wiggling his fingers until Rose reached for him with a laugh. She clasped her hand in his and let out a gasp when he touched her.

“How does this work, then?” she asked in fascination, beaming up to the duplicate who gently swayed their locked hands between them.

The Doctor huffed in annoyance. “It’s just a force field, simulating a body,” he explained, stepping between them. “It feels solid under light touch, but it’s not real, and not exactly stable. See?” He poked the projection’s cheek, first gently and then a second time with more force. The second time, his finger burst through the force field and the skin of the duplicate turned translucent around his hand.

“Ouch!” the duplicate Doctor complained. Rose swatted his hand away and the projection stabilized, turning back to normal.

“Don’t hurt him,” Rose said and the Doctor huffed.

“He’s not real,” he insisted again, trying to ignore how Rose looked at the duplicate with sympathy as he rubbed the spot on the side of his face. “His feelings aren’t real. They’re just part of the simulation.”

“But that means he’s still feeling it, isn’t he?” Rose said, stepping closer to the other Doctor. “I mean, you must feel pain, if you can feel someone touching you.”

She reached out for him, trying to prove her point by gently trailing her fingers over his cheek. The duplicate Doctor let out a content hum and leaned into her touch.

“Oh, that feels nice. Very nice,” he said, his lips curling into a soft smile that hid nothing of the adoration he held for her. The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks and stared at him, speechless for a second as he replayed the last sentence of the duplicate in his mind. That didn’t sound right.

Rose let out a small confused laugh, looking up at him. “Yeah?” she asked, smiling a bit uncertainly. The duplicate Doctor nodded, his eyes sparkling with joy as he placed his hands above hers. “Yes. I like it when you touch me. You should do that more often.”

Rose froze, obviously startled by the unusually honest confession. The Doctor felt his hearts stutter in his chest, realizing with a start why the projection talked like that. Oh, he was in so much trouble.

Rose pulled her hand back and looked at him, but he tried hard not to meet her gaze. He felt his cheeks flush at the small sound of protest from the duplicate Doctor and cleared his throat.

“Right, we better fix this whole thing before your mother comes home,” he said, his voice a pitch higher than usual, turning back to the device that he had dropped on the coffee table. Frowning at the mess of wires and buttons, he tried to figure out how to switch it off before it was too late.

Rose was silent for a few seconds. “Why did you just say that?” she then asked, addressing the projection. The Doctor held his breath, staring down at his hands, his screwdriver hovering over the machine.

“I’m still a simulation. I’m just saying what he would be saying,” the duplicate Doctor said, confused.

“But he wouldn’t have said that,” Rose protested. The tone in her voice made the Doctor look up. There was hurt in her voice, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. Hurt that he wouldn’t be so open, so honest, in stating his affection for her. After all they went through in the last weeks, from Sarah Jane to France to the parallel world, it didn’t surprise him that she thought like that. Not after he’d done everything he could to put distance between them, just because he was terrified she would get too close. And still, Rose’s words made his hearts clench painfully in his chest. The Doctor let out a shuddering breath, finally raising his gaze to her face. For a second their eyes met, but then Rose startled when his duplicate reached for her hand and whirled around to him.

“He would,” the duplicate Doctor assured her. “Like I said, I’m a simulation. My speech is based on an imprint of his mind. I was just saying what would have gone through his head in that moment. Well, there is a certain probability for errors since I’m extrapolating the data I got from him, but that number is negligible.”

He gave Rose a reassuring smile, but it didn’t ease the frown on her face. Instead she shook her head, still distressed.

“You must’ve gotten it wrong, then,” Rose said with a bitter laugh that broke his hearts. “He never said anything like that to me.”

The projection frowned and looked at the Doctor, confused and searching for an explanation. The Doctor struggled for words, unable to speak, unable to breathe, panic coursing through his veins.

“Oh,” the projection finally said when he remained silent. “Okay, then it was maybe-”

“He didn’t,” the Doctor blurted out before he could stop himself. He cleared his throat, rubbing his neck when Rose looked at him in confusion. “Get it wrong, I mean.”

Rose opened her mouth to speak, but closed it again before a word left her lips. “I don’t understand,” she finally admitted.

The Doctor took a deep breath, trying to find the right words to explain. “The computer in this device made a scan of my mind,” he started. “Based on that it’s simulating how I look, how I behave, and how I think. But when it comes to speaking, it doesn’t have the same filters that I have. It just says everything it wants to say. Without censoring it. The technology behind it is sophisticated, yes, but still not good enough to simulate that.”

Silence followed his words. Rose looked at him, her expression unreadable as she processed what he’d just said. The Doctor finally tore his gaze away from her face, letting out a long breath.

“I should really fix this,” he eventually said, sitting back down on the couch. He watched from the corner of his eyes how Rose crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned back against the couch as well, putting as much distance between them as possible without leaving the room entirely. The Doctor worked quickly, repairing the remote control of the machine and then, with one last look at his duplicate, standing at the end of the room with his hands buried in his pockets and his gaze fixed on Rose, he pressed a button and the projection flickered out of existence.

Rose let out a sigh, staring at the spot where his duplicate had been just a few seconds ago. “I liked him,” she finally said, sadness lingering in her voice.

The Doctor ran a hand over his face, looking up at her.

“Rose… I’m sorry.”

“For what?” she asked, her voice small. “That he said things you didn’t want me to know?”

Before he could think of something to say, Rose jumped up and turned away from him.

“I need to check on the biscuits in the oven,” she mumbled before fleeing out of the room. Without hesitation, the Doctor rushed to follow her. He finally caught up on her in the kitchen and Rose whirled around to him, scowling at him through tears in her eyes.

“Rose, please listen,” he begged. “I’m sorry, really.”

“You don’t have anything to be sorry for,” Rose said, voice wavering. “I know that you don’t want… more, with me. And that’s okay. It hurts, but I accepted it. It’s just hard to hear that you actually think this way about me and still don’t want me.”

“That’s not true,” the Doctor said, determined.

Rose stopped dead in her tracks, looking startled but no longer angry, so the Doctor carefully made a step towards her. When she didn’t flinch he reached out to take her hand in his, gently raising it to his mouth to press a kiss to her knuckles.

“I’m sorry that I made you think I wouldn’t want you,” the Doctor said. “And I’m sorry if I ever made you feel like you’re not good enough for me. Because you are. More than good enough.”

“What makes you say this? All of the sudden?” Rose asked, shaking her head and still not looking convinced. “I mean, you could just pretend that the simulation was faulty, that this wasn’t something you would say and continue like you did before. Why did you change your mind?”

“Because I’m scared,” the Doctor said. “I was scared before, scared to let you too close to me, to let our relationship develop into something more. But now I see how much that hurt you.”

Rose sniffled, fighting back tears as she looked down to their hands, their fingers still entwined.

“And now that doesn’t scare you any more?”

The Doctor grimaced. “Oh, it does. Believe me, it does. But I’m more scared to lose you right now, just because I wasn’t honest with you.”

Rose let out a small laugh. “I can’t believe you’re really saying that,” she confessed when the Doctor raised an eyebrow in question.

“I really messed up, didn’t I?” the Doctor said after a moment of silence. “I’m sorry.”

Rose finally raised her gaze to his face and gave him a small smile.

“Yeah, you did. But I forgive you. If you promise to stop pushing me away. And to be honest with me.”

“I will,” the Doctor said, squeezing her hand in reassurance.

Rose smiled properly then, her lips curling into a broad grin that lit up her whole face and made her eyes sparkle. A hint of her tongue appeared at the corner of her mouth, and before the Doctor could stop it, his eyes followed the motion to her lips.

“Yeah? So tell me, what are you thinking right now?” Rose asked, teasing.

“I really want to kiss you,” the Doctor admitted, hearts pounding in his chest, but all his doubt and fear was washed away when Rose’s smiled brightened further and her cheeks flushed.

“Go on then.”

Gently, the Doctor cradled her face in his hands and took a deep breath. Rose stepped closer to him, crushing the last bit of his hesitation, and he leaned down to press his lips against hers.

Rose let out a content hum in the back of her throat, pressing closer, responding to the kiss in a way that made his hearts skip a beat and his head spin. He needed a moment to take it all in, the warmth of her cheeks under his fingertips, the softness of her lips against his, her taste on his tongue that left him craving for more.

Rose looped her arms around his neck, her fingers running through the hair on the back of his head, making him groan against his mouth. Encouraged by her reaction, the Doctor gently guided Rose back until her bum hit the kitchen counter. Rose gasped and he took the chance to deepen the kiss, trailing his tongue shyly along her bottom lip until Rose whimpered under his touch, silently begging him for more.

The Doctor moved his hands to her hips, pulling her against him, but suddenly the door opened behind them and Jackie’s shrill voice sounded through the room, making them spring apart.

“Oh, I can’t leave you two alone for two seconds, can I?” she complained.

Still flustered by the kiss, the Doctor needed a second to tear his eyes away from Rose’s swollen lips and her dark eyes, before turning around to face Jackie. She stood in the door, her hands on her hips, scowling at them with a twinkle in her eyes that told the Doctor she was secretly pleased about the progression of their relationship.

“Listen, I don’t care what you two are doing in that box of yours, but you’re not fooling around in my kitchen,” Jackie continued. “You got that?”

“Yes mum,” Rose said quickly, suppressing a laugh. Jackie rolled her eyes and left the room, muttering under her breath. As soon as she was out of earshot, Rose dissolved into giggles beside him. The Doctor couldn’t help but laugh with her.

“We’re lucky she didn’t catch us with your duplicate, don’t you think?” Rose said as soon as she calmed down a little.

“Yes, absolutely,” the Doctor agreed, looking down at Rose. She leaned her shoulder against his, looking completely happy and content as she looked at him with a broad smile on her lips, nothing but love and adoration in her expression. It made the Doctor’s hearts stutter in his chest. He certainly was lucky today.


End file.
